The hot, humid weather of the past week has finally broken, and on the last day of summer yet!
In about an hour I'm starting the first long walk of several I've planned for the autumn, so the 19°C temperature—and, more importantly, 16°C dewpoint—is very welcome. Just 24 hours ago, they were 22°C and 21°C respectively, which one can only describe as "really sticky."
I might not post about the walk until tomorrow morning, but I'm looking forward to it. I haven't gone up the North Branch Trail since last October, and I haven't walked up the stretch from Devon to Dempster since 2018. (Fitbit no longer allows deep links to activities. Bastards.)
During this last full week of summer, I haven't had a lot of time at home because we had to work in the office every day. And what a week.
I got home from work (and got Cassie home from day camp) right before some pretty impressive storms hit on Tuesday:
After discussing with a friend how a lot of the humidity we've experienced this summer comes from corn and soybean transpiration to our west, he discussed it with Bing's DALL-E 3:
(Not sure what happened with the spine of the book...or the windmill in the cover photo...or the title...but I did laugh.)
Relief is coming, though. A line of thunderstorms went through just before sunrise, and the cold front driving them will drop the dewpoint from 21°C now to 15°C by this time tomorrow:
Then Wednesday night my doorbell camera picked something up that I didn't expect:
Turns out, I have a new houseguest, who has politely set up shop by my front door to help keep mosquitoes (and one unfortunate cicada!) out:
That is a furrow or foliate spider, as far as I can tell.
Wednesday evening she even got a visitor:
Sadly, as is typical of orb weaver romances, her gentleman caller probably did not survive the evening. I don't judge; she's caught a lot of mosquitoes, she's entitled to celebrate. And I think I saw some baby spiders last night, so maybe I'll invite a couple inside?
Today, I'm taking a PTO day to catch up on everything, and to clear a path for my 4-hour walk tomorrow.
A few weeks ago I planned a PTO day to take a 25 km walk tomorrow along the North Branch Trail with pizza at the end. (I'll do my annual marathon walk in October.) Sadly, the weather forecast bodes against it, with scattered thunderstorms and dewpoints over 22°C. But, since I've already got tomorrow off, and I have a solid PTO bank right now, I'll still take the day away from the office. And autumn begins Sunday.
Good thing, too, because the articles piled up this morning, and I haven't had time to finish yesterday's:
Finally, Washington Post reporter Christine Mi spent 80 hours crossing the US on Amtrak this summer. I am envious. Also sad, because the equivalent trip in Europe would have taken less than half the time on newer rolling stock, and not burned a quarter of the Diesel.
Our lead story today concerns empty suit and Chicago Transit Authority president Dorval Carter, who just can't seem to bother himself with the actual CTA:
From the end of May 2023 to spring 2024, as CTA riders had to cope with frequent delays and filthy conditions, Carter spent nearly 100 days out of town at conferences, some overseas, his schedule shows.
Most of Carter’s trips between June 2023 and May 2024 were for events related to the American Public Transportation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group he chaired in 2022 and 2023. Carter spent a week in Pittsburgh and another in Orlando, six days in Puerto Rico and five days in Washington, D.C. He also took trips to Spain, New Zealand and Australia.
In total, Carter was out of town for 97 of the 345 days Block Club reviewed, according to his schedule. That means he spent 28 percent of that period outside of Chicago.
Block Club previously reported that Carter used his CTA-issued card for rides just 24 times between 2021 and 2022. CTA records show the number of times Carter swiped his work pass increased to 58 in 2023, according to a July op-ed piece in the Tribune.
Spain, I should note, has possibly the best train network in the world outside Japan, so maybe he learned something there? But as is typical with municipal barnacles, grifting along in high-profile city jobs, his office won't say.
In other news:
Finally, Pamela Paul imagines how the RFK Jr campaign looks from inside his head—specifically, to the worm encysted in his brain.
As of 3pm, the 37.2°C temperature at O'Hare made today, officially, the hottest day of 2024—and we even broke the previous record, set in 1973 (36.6°C). My house has has cooled down slightly from a couple of hours ago, but I still get to walk home from doggy day care in a 39°C heat index.
We're taking the shortest route possible. And I plan to shower more or less immediately on getting home.
The forecast still predicts today will be the hottest day of the year. Last night at IDTWHQ the temperature got all the way down to 26.2°C right before sunrise. We have a heat advisory until 10pm, by which time the thunderstorms should have arrived. Good thing Cassie and I got a bit of extra time on our walk to day camp this morning.
Elsewhere in the world:
Finally, Garmin has released its latest fitness watch that doubles as a freaking Dick Tracy wrist phone. I mean, first, how cool is that? And second, how come it took 90 years after Dick Tracy got one?
I had planned a longer post this evening, but I had about 2 hours of chorus work to do and I didn't have any energy for half an hour after getting home. We may have our hottest night of the year tonight, with a forecast low of 26°C, before having our hottest day of the year tomorrow. (We had 36°C on June 17th; tomorrow could be 37°C.)
So I'm going to drink another glass or two of ice water and pat Cassie for a bit, then gird myself for tomorrow's sticky walk to doggie day care.
I just walked Cassie about 7 blocks (1.4 km) and she took her sweet time, sniffing every blade of grass. Part of that I'm sure was that she spent 3 nights boarded, which she finds exhausting. The other part was that it's still 30°C just a few minutes before sunset.
And yay, woo, we get even worse tomorrow:
As Chicago Public School students return to class Monday, the heat index is expected to break [38°C].
The National Weather Service in Chicago issued an excessive heat warning from Monday afternoon to Tuesday evening due to the “dangerously hot and humid conditions.” The city is opening cooling centers and urging Chicagoans to stay indoors when possible.
Heat index values could reach [42°C] Monday and [43°C] Tuesday. Meanwhile, overnight temperatures are only expected to drop to [the high 20s].
This anticipated extreme heat arrives after the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared an Air Pollution Action Day for Chicago-area counties Sunday due to high ozone levels, which are caused by pollutants emitted by cars, industrial sources and wildfires such as those currently blazing in Canada.
But hey, we have only had a handful of days like this so far this summer, and autumn starts (meteorologically) next Sunday.
Still, I look forward to the slice of the year where I don't feel like I need to shower every time I go outside. The NCDC predicts that will start Saturday. One can hope.
Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Big Time Brewery & Alehouse, 4133 University Way NE, Seattle
Train line: Sound Transit, U District
Time from Chicago: about 4 hours by air
Distance from station: 300 m
Let me start by saying Seattle had beautiful weather last week...until just before I arrived on Thursday. That didn't stop my friend and me from visiting Seattle's oldest brew-pub, just off the University of Washington campus. As you can see, though, we opted to sit inside, and we left Hazel at home.
Now, it's important to understand as you read what follows, my friend does not like beer. Wine, sure; cocktails, no problem; beer, never. So don't take her comments as indictments of what I thought were perfectly serviceable drinks.
I tried a flight along with an unpretentious Caesar salad, starting with the Big City Pilsner (4.8%), which I thought had good malt, wasn't overly sweet, had a long-ish finish. [She: "I'm trying to think of what kind of sock this tastes like..."] The Primetime Pale (5.2%, 35 IBU) had a very hop-forward beginning and a long finish; I liked it. [She: "This is water wrung from a sock someone wore for the entire Appalachian Trail. Maybe with a broken toenail clipping."] The Scarlet Fire Northwest IPA (6.8%, 70 IBU) had a great, full-hop balance; a good PNW beer. [She: "This is like an iced tea that someone left in the sun all day and it went cloudy."] I finished with the Coal Creek Porter (5.5%, 25 IBU), which had chocolate and coffee at the beginning but an odd tart note and just enough hops. [She, pulling a face: "This tastes like vinegar and chocolate, and not in a good way."]
Well, my friend, I know what I'm not getting you for Christmas this year.
Pity the rain didn't let up. I think Hazel would have liked watching the people go by on University Way. Maybe next time.
Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? A few, avoidable
Serves food? Full pub menu
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
Garmin has a feature on some of its watches that helps you avoid jet lag by coaching you on sleep times and other things at various points around a trip. This morning, my watch advised me to get lots of light between 7am and 9am (Seattle time). So I have ensconced myself in the best-lit room available to me in the SEA-TAC terminal, with windows on three sides. Just one problem:
Since arriving, I've heard that the city "really needed" the non-stop rain and gloom Seattle has "enjoyed" since the evening before I got here. The last time I visited, Seattle had temperatures 10°C below Chicago's in the one cold snap of the winter—only for Chicago to have near-record-breaking cold the day after I got home. It's hard not to take this personally...
I've got a short connection in Dallas this afternoon and an upgrade on the DFW-ORD segment, so I don't anticipate posting again until tomorrow. But I've got a Brews & Choos Extra Stop coming then, so check back soon.